Market Overview
Bitcoin (BTC) has broken out of its recent sideways trading range, experiencing a 5.15% increase this week. Ethereum (ETH) showed stronger performance, surging by 6.25% during the same period. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose by 3.86%, concluding the week at $3.23 trillion, up from $3.11 trillion in the preceding week.
Crypto markets continued their upward trend this week, approaching the significant $100,000 mark once again. Despite the market's strong performance, liquidations remained relatively stable compared to the previous week. Short liquidations saw a spike exceeding $500 million on January 13th but subsequently returned to normal levels. As anticipated, funding rates continued to climb, reflecting an increased appetite for risk, though most rates still remain within healthy ranges.
Key Developments:
- •South Korea has lifted its nine-year ban on corporate cryptocurrency investments, allowing companies to invest up to 5% of their equity into the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
- •Michael Saylor's company purchased an additional 13,627 BTC for $1.25 billion, increasing their total holdings to 687,410 BTC.
- •Visa has partnered with the stablecoin infrastructure project BVNK to facilitate stablecoin payments through Visa Direct.
Significance:
The crypto markets have demonstrated surprising resilience this week, occurring against a backdrop of escalating geopolitical instability and weakness in traditional financial markets. Some market observers speculate that the narrative of Bitcoin as a macroeconomic hedge is regaining traction, while others view the current rally as a mere relief bounce. For context, the S&P 500 increased by 0.23% this week, while the Nasdaq saw a smaller gain of 0.11%.
Notable altcoins that outperformed this week include Dash (DASH), River (RIVER), Monero (XMR), Internet Computer (ICP), and Chiliz (CHZ).
Narrative of the Week
Privacy tokens have captured significant attention this week, with Monero and Zcash leading the discussion among privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.
- •Monero has surpassed its five-year-old all-time high, reaching over $700 for the first time.
- •The former core developer team of Zcash has announced their new Zcash wallet, cashZ, just one week after departing from the Zcash development company, Electric Coin Company, following a board dispute.
- •Reports indicate that Dubai has allegedly banned privacy tokens and tightened regulations surrounding stablecoins as part of an effort to reset its cryptocurrency regulatory framework.
Significance:
Privacy tokens are once again in the spotlight, driven by increasing geopolitical tensions and significant developments within major privacy token projects.
Major Project Updates
- •Kaito has announced the sunsetting of Yaps following X's decision to restrict API access for InfoFi platforms. Kaito is pivoting to Kaito Studio, a tiered marketing platform for projects.
- •Optimism has proposed a buyback program for its OP token, aiming to allocate 50% of its incoming Superchain revenue towards monthly OP token buybacks.
- •Celestia has introduced Fibre Blockspace, a new data availability protocol designed to support 1 terabyte per second of blockspace across 500 nodes.
- •Polygon has outlined its plans for the Open Money Stack, detailing its vision to develop core infrastructure for bringing payments on-chain.
Significance:
InfoFi projects are facing challenges as X intensifies its focus on cashtag tracking and trading natively within its platform, leading to the revocation of API access for InfoFi teams.
DeFi Brief
Data as of 6:45 AM UTC on January 16, 2026.
- •The perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) Lighter has announced LIT staking, which will require depositors into the Lighter Liquidity Pool to stake LIT. Each LIT token will permit $10 worth of deposits into the pool. This staking requirement will become effective in two weeks.
- •World Liberty Financial has launched World Liberty Markets, built on the Dolomite money market protocol. Users can now supply and borrow assets including WLFI, ETH, cbBTC, USDC, and USDT, among others.
- •Binance Wallet has integrated perpetual futures trading, powered by Aster, the primary perpetual DEX on the Binance Smart Chain.
Significance:
There is ongoing debate among speculators regarding the decision to link Lighter Liquidity Pool deposits to LIT staking, with discussions centering on whether this proposition is sufficiently attractive to prevent liquidity from leaving the pool.
Fundraises
- •Alpaca, a developer-focused API for crypto, stocks, and options, has raised $150 million in a Series D funding round. The round was led by Drive Capital and included participation from Citadel Securities, Opera Tech Ventures, and numerous other investors.
- •Rain, a stablecoin-powered cards protocol, has raised $250 million in a Series C funding round. The round was led by Iconiq Capital and saw participation from Sapphire Ventures, Dragonfly, Bessemer, Galaxy, and others.
- •Noise, an attention trading platform, has raised $7.1 million in a seed funding round led by Paradigm. Other investors in this round include Figment Capital, Anagram, GSR, and Kaito.
- •Project Eleven, a post-quantum crypto infrastructure protocol, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Castle Island Ventures. Investors supporting this round include Coinbase Ventures, Fin Capital, Variant, and Lattice Fund.
Airdrops Abound
- •Fogo, an SVM Layer 1 chain, has launched its FOGO token, enabling early adopters on the chain to claim their FOGO airdrop.
- •Solana Mobile has opened the airdrop checker for the upcoming SKR token airdrop. Active on-chain users and developers are eligible to receive this airdrop.
Tweet of the Week
Nikita Bier has singlehandedly impacted an entire sector of the crypto market overnight.